Freshwater fish

Contraptions that resemble upside-down kitchen sinks have been placed in the Waikawa River in Southland to attract a notoriously elusive native fish species.

Under the light of the moon where the river meets the sea, NIWA researchers are planning to catch tiny fish that are all but invisible to the naked eye.

NIWA freshwater scientists are pinning their hopes of solving an age-old mystery on 10 female longfin eels who are about to begin an epic journey to their spawning grounds somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

The tiny inanga have been plucked from Waikato streams and held in a darkened laboratory for the last month, undertaking highly advanced testing to find the strongest, fittest and fastest fish.

In a secret training location on the outskirts of Hamilton, a squad of whitebait is being put through its paces by fish scientists.

As a young child growing up on an Irish farm, one of Eimear Egan’s chores was to regularly clean out the well from where her family drew its drinking water. In the well lived a large eel that, no matter how many times it was shifted, just kept coming back.

Inanga are the predominant species in the modern whitebait fishery.

Grey mullet have a worldwide distribution and Aotearoa is at the southern limit of their range.

Kōaro are excellent climbers and like clear, swiftly flowing, forested streams.

Has a receding lower jaw and black spots behind the head.

Smelt have a distinctly forked tail and a strong cucumber smell.